According to Fu Zhiren, the Liao State and the Song State were still in a stalemate in Hebei, and the Rus State and the Great Food in the west had attacked Lu Meicheng, an ally of the Xia State, and the captains of the Protectorate Mansion were arguing over whether to send troops to intervene, so the time for the return of the rotating captains was delayed, and the time for Qiu Shiliang to set off for Dunhuang was also delayed accordingly.

The weather is getting colder, and the clothes are gradually added, and in September, all kinds of chrysanthemums bloom one after another, and Fu Zhiren's wife Xiang also joked with Li Ruoxue that they missed the Chongyang chrysanthemums in Chang'an. When the world only Chang'an chrysanthemum can be as famous as Luoyang peony, it is the so-called "cupola incense array through Chang'an, the city is full of golden armor". The peony is rich and peaceful, and the chrysanthemum is heroic, and each is good at winning. It is said that Chang'an also has many famous species such as "Golden Terrace", "Mutton Fat White", "Reunion Longevity", "Lion Head", etc., and Li Ruoxue was also quite fascinated when she heard it.

On the day of the Double Ninth Festival, even in the small city of Tongzhou, every household also planted a large golden chrysanthemum at the door, and the restaurant tied the chrysanthemum into a doorway. Zhao Xingde and his wife climbed high and looked far away with Fu Zhiren's family, and then feasted on a hill called Mochoutai. Fu Zhiren's wife, Xiang Shi, was quite ingenious, and made various steamed cakes such as chicken, duck, pig, cow and sheep out of flour, and topped them with seasonal fruits, such as pomegranates, chestnuts, ginkgo, pine nuts and the like. I don't eat and play at home, and I loosen a lot of it for relatives and friends.

On September 29, Fu Zhiren happily said that someone had finally talked to Zhao De about poetry and papers, and brought a few Kanto scholars to his home for dinner. It is also strange to say that in the past, the scholars in the Kanto region came from Hangu Pass with customs clearance documents, but this time, like Zhao Xingde, these people smuggled over from the Yellow River, but they did not use iron cables, but paid someone to use leather rafts to ferry.

However, it was these scholars who brought Zhao Xingde a bad news that he would never want to hear.

"Mr. Zhang Bing has passed away." Luo Shoudao from Xijing lost his soul and said.

The traitor Tong Guan returned to Bianjing, and somehow tricked Shangyi into believing his nonsense. Kaifeng Mansion used torture to extract a confession, but Mr. Zhang Bing refused to confess and died in prison. After the news of the death of Guozijian in the prison of Kaifeng Mansion came out, scholars from all over the country vigorously criticized the traitors of the imperial court, and more than a dozen adults such as Yang Shi, Shao Wu, and Qin Hui jointly played, and the saint finally agreed not to exhaustively investigate the crime of rebellion by the son of the exposé case, but still designated the scholars implicated in this case as friends. Most of the officials in Zhuzhou and County on Jingbei Road are followers of Cai Thief and Tong Thief, and they are vigorously searching for party members and concocting other charges to punish them. We escaped because we posted a post in Luoyang and were exposed. ”

"What?" Zhao Xingde was stunned for a moment, Zhang Bing's voice and smile were as if they were yesterday, and sometimes they were impassioned, "My Taixue scholar wants to send Mr. Zhoushan with great fanfare, Shaoyang, Shouyi, Yuan Zhi, Zhujun, do you dare to go!" "The three divisions, I will bear it with all my might, and I will not allow the traitorous party to impose the crime of treason on us." "I am a dignified China, how can no one die to understand the weight of national law."

Sometimes he was mild and concerned, "Yuan Zhi, if you are short of money, if you say a word, you will not want to borrow from that merchant again." ”

Sometimes it is rigorous and wise, "The Khitans are good at horseback and are accustomed to hunting, if they blindly compete with them with riding bows and crossbows, they will inevitably attack the enemy's strengths with their own shortcomings." The method of manufacturing and operating this firearm is quite cumbersome, and the Khitan people may not have this ability, but it is suitable for the meticulous temperament cultivated by our country and our people all year round. "My way is to rule the world by law, not to abolish the law because of people."

"Zhang Minghuan, actually, just went?" Zhao Xingde had such a thought circling in his mind, although he knew that he was afraid of his life if he was falsely accused of rebellion, but he still had a glimmer of hope for the ancestral family law of the imperial court not to kill the scholars. And now, this hope has been completely shattered, and only regret and guilt are left for Zhang Bing.

When Zhao Xingde was losing his soul, Liu Cang, a scholar from Caizhou, interjected and asked, "Is the saint really not pursuing the crime of rebellion?" It's just that the friends are not going to raid the family and exterminate the family. ”

Liu Duanfang, a scholar from Ruzhou, said: "Exactly, except for Mr. Zhao Yuanzhi, who was deliberately framed by Fang La, the demon of the Ming Sect, no one else will be investigated for the crime of rebellion." Hearing that Mr. Deng Su, including Mr. Deng Su, had been released and was only going to be exiled back to his hometown, even Mr. Chen Dong and other gentlemen, who had absconded, surrendered to the local yamen. He paused for a moment, and then added, "But we all think that Mr. Yuan Zhi is a strange man who stands up to the heavens and the earth, and he will never be in the same league as Fang La's demon." ”

Zhao Xingde's face was pale, and he muttered in his heart: "You are all wrong, he is just a rat who has trapped his friends in danger and absconded alone." He clenched his fists, confessed to Fu Zhiren, stood up, and left the table in a hurry.

Zhao Xingde stood alone in the courtyard, the grass and trees with his head bowed were withered by the autumn wind, and the resentment and grief that Shicai desperately suppressed came to his heart. Looking up at the thick clouds hanging low on the horizon, the light of the sun was obscured by the clouds, making the sky look very dark, and he suddenly wanted to stretch out a hand and tear the clouds apart and tear them apart. At this time, he really wanted to cry, but he couldn't cry anyway, but he felt as if there was a huge black hole in his heart, as if he was about to swallow his entire soul into it.

I don't know how long it took, Li Ruoxue came behind him and gently held his hand.

Zhao Xingde turned his head to look at her, and said in a hoarse voice: "Minghuan was killed by a traitor." ”

Li Ruoxue looked at him worriedly and said in a low voice, "I know everything." Gennao, I'm worried about you right now. ”

Zhao Xingde was silent and did not answer.

Li Ruoxue had tears in her eyes, her lips moved, but she still didn't say anything. He only held Zhao Xingde's hand and leaned lightly on his body, as if to help him bear something.

After a long time, Zhao Xingde finally let out a long sigh, his face regained some anger, and sighed: "I'm just not worth it for Minghuan." He wanted to give up his life to understand the weight of the law of the country, but he didn't even have a triage of the three divisions. ”

Two days later, on the first day of the first month of October, it is the Winter Clothes Festival, and seeing that the cold winter is coming, every household sacrifices the dead on this day, in order to prevent them from being exposed to the cold and freezing in the underworld, they will burn the clothes made of five-colored paper, as if to send them warm clothes. In addition to paying tribute to his parents and relatives, Zhao Xingde also bought some for Zhang Bing, watched the curling green smoke rise into the sky, and said secretly: "Brother Minghuan, go all the way." ”

Because of the rude act of leaving the banquet in a hurry that day, several Song scholars were a little cold to him, and Zhao Xingde didn't care, if he understood his identity, everyone would be embarrassed. The Xia Imperial Court actually issued a special decree for this matter, and all scholars who fled to Kanto because of the implication of the unmasking case, even if they did not have a customs clearance document, were specially allowed to be evaluated by the Chang'an Bachelor's Mansion and approved their status as scribes. Zhao Xingde has concealed it for so long because he did not explain it to Fu Zhiren earlier, and it is even more impossible for him to change his words and admit that he is Zhao Yuanzhi, who was ordered by the government to pay special attention to the exposé case and asked the inspectors everywhere to pay attention.

On the 10th day of October, five captains of the Iron Bone Army returned to the camp from Dunhuang, while Qiu Shiliang and five others set off at the same time. Accompanied by ten iron-bone army sergeants, Zhao Xingde and Li Ruoxue also followed this group of people and embarked on a journey to Dunhuang, the western capital of the Xia Kingdom.

Captain Qiu Shiliang is a middle-aged officer in his forties, who is very serious, but he treats the sergeant very well and thinks about things very carefully. Zhao Xingde's ability to open a three-stone bow has spread in the barracks, Qiu Shiliang feels that with his bravery, the Tiger Wing Army is a little buried, the military system of the Xia State is the first to pay attention to military merits, the Tiger Wing Army is stationed in the Western Capital all the year round, and there is no battle all year round. With his archery skills, he should go to the Anxi Military Division to join the army. The school captain's office has decided to take advantage of the opportunity of the Great Food and the Turks to attack Lu Mei and send troops to intervene, and if Lu Meiguo fights for his own strength, he will help them. If you don't fight for it, you swallow it.

Qiu Shiliang is old and sophisticated, and he will neither reveal his thoughts to Zhao De, nor will he reveal the military aircraft that the Protectorate is determined to go west. Along the way, he was secretly thinking about how to combine the forces of the military captains in Guanzhong, and then win over some of the captains in Bashu and Anbei, and the benefits of this war could not be swallowed by Anxi. No matter what, although because of the distance, the Guanzhong Army cannot fight, but to raise the Prime Minister's Mansion bonds spent on this military use, how can the Guanzhong Army take a part of it, and subsidize the debt interest to the retired sergeants.